Week 2....

The next three posts are going to be about the last three weeks, but I'll separate them to pretend like I did them when I was supposed to....

Week 2 was also the last week of summer for the boys, and at the beginning of the week we still weren't sure what the time schedule for the boys' schools would be. Fil started middle school this year, so it all changed....
As per my contractual 'schedule' I still had the mornings to myself, so Monday morning Patrizia and I braved Italian bureaucracy. It took 3 and a half hours to become  registered with the State, about 10 minutes of that was spent actually going through the paperwork with an official.  The rest was spent waiting in line....my absolute favorite thing to do, ever.
Fil had stayed at the sea/beach/Lerici with his aunt and uncle and would return on Wednesday so it was just Ruggi and me. We had lunch, spent the afternoon playing board games: battleship, Risk, Uno. And then we watched youtube videos of Starwars with italian dubbing as Ruggi explained to me the importance of each scene and each fight manuever. Then we went out to the park until dinner--a pretty low-key day.  Dinner was amazing! It is still warm enough to eat outside at this point so we ate out on the front porch, with the Alps dining along side us, and had the most magnificient soup.  It was very light, but it had so many flavors! Carrots, fennel, peppers, and the broth was a lemony broth....mmmmm sooo good.  And for second plate we had a smörgåsbord of cheeses--the custom is to eat from fresh to aged. I will get the names of the cheeses and comment them up here, but bascially oh my gosh, heaven.  There are more than 100 types of cheeses just in Torino!! Well, the area around Torino. How ridiculous is that?!? We didn't have all 100, just 10... :)
Tuesday was another low key day, a little room organization in the morning after a not so subtle hint from Patrizia about whether I had enough space in my room for all of my things or if we needed to buy more boxes or shelving units.  Afternoon craft was collages, where Ruggi and I made a jungle from cut out animals from national geographic [thanks Lauren for the tip and the pre-cut starters!], and then Uno was the game of the hour.  Patrizia was in Rome on Tuesday so dinner was just Alberto, Ruggi and I.  Alberto likes to drink wine, which is fine with me, but usually there are 3 of us to drink the wine....This night Alberto and I shared the bottle and it was powerful stuff...so after dinner when I went out with Lindsay for her birthday, I was already a little buzzed walking to the bar.  The bar was awesome.  It is a Jazz bar!! Real jazz, not Frank Sinatra, and I am a major Frank fan.  But I'm talking Nat King Cole trio, Louie Armstrong, Ella, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis--the good stuff! mmmm let me help you imagine the scene: a small bar with mostly wooden fixtures; a warm red as the only other accent color; tons of wooden tables and chairs, not necessarily matching in style but in size and material; the crooning voice of Billie Holiday overhead; 2 bartenders who make a point to get to know the customers be it with conversation, shots, hand-rolled cigarettes, what-have-you; a lively yet hippie vibe to the place without being exaggerated; not too many people but not empty either. Can you see it? With our shared 10 euro bottle of red wine from the Piedmont (Torino) area we sat in a booth waiting for midnight to roll around. Lindsay and I had really spent limited time together so we got to pick each other's brain--an excellent exercise at anytime but the environment made it ten times better. One of the bartenders, Fuorio, sat with us for a little bit, rolled a cigarette, chatted, we informed him that it would be Lindsday's birthday at midnight and that we wanted a plate of chocolate (haha, random I know).  Sure enough, at midnight he returned to celebrate with chocolate, and a shot for everyone.  Lindsay and I cleared out at about 2am [6:45 wake-up call.....], and Fuorio had a parting gift of one more shot, whatever we wished. Yeesh! We promised to be back for my birthday in two weeks [see birthday post].
Mm, so Wednesday morning was hard to get up. I had to meet with Patrizia early because I was going to do the shopping for the family at the market with Nonna Dina (her mom). Quiet an experience, let me tell you.  First let me describe Nonna Dina: pretty much the classic Italian grandmother that you think of.  She openly praises and criticizes everyone, from relative to stranger on the street; she repeats what she is saying four and five times; she half guilts people into giving her what she wants; she cares deeply for just about everyone she meets; she has a very strong Piemontese accent, making her sound like Sean Conery in Italian. Okay so maybe the last one isn't the classic Italian grandmother, but it is Nonna Dina.  So shopping with her was a trip! She criticized the farmers selling their goods, telling them that they cost too much and that no one in their right mind would buy from them at that price, and doted upon her favorites hailing praises at their quality and price.  She speaks zero English, so while I can understand her [thankfully she repeats herself 4 and 5 times everytime], I stumble to respond back to her questions....she looks at me sometimes like I am a little slow....but we make it work :) Almost immediately after I returned to the house cousin Marta, 13, was waiting to go shopping.  First we hit the markets for discounted, fallen-off-the-back-of-a-truck finds and then we went down to the designer stores on Via Roma.  I loved the former, Marta loved the latter.  Lunchtime. Then another cool afternoon of Uno, battleship and Jenga, with playing outside at the park for dessert.  Fil came in on the train Wednesday night around 7 so at dinner we had a full table.
Thursday I set off to finalize my Italian language class stuff.  Explanation: part of the reason for my whole Italian excursion is to become fluent enough to present my argument for a Fulbright Scholarship researching the relationship between Commedia Dell'Arte and Northern and Southern Italian societies in Italian. Clearly I need to make sure that I leave here fluent or I would have missed out on a seriously huge opportunity and be really dumb.  So back to the story, after a week of research for the classes, done by both Alberto and myself, pretty much any University based class was out of the question either because of the time schedule or because of the cost.  Private language school was the only option, now I just had to pick which one.  Thursday and Friday mornings I went to two prominent schools in Torino, took the entry test and got information, eventually chosing the CiaoItaly school for the price, the duration of the course, and the vicinity. I finished my test on Thursday morning in time to go to lunch with the boys and Nonna Dina to get pizza at a nearby shop.  On the way I asked them about tie dye, if they had ever done it--they didn't even know what it was.  We had to pass through the open market on the way back from our pizza lunch to get to the house and low and behold there was a natural dye stand. I kid you not.  So we bought dye, but it was old school stuff.  We started tye dying as soon as we got home (2:30) but it wouldn't be finished until 9:30 that night....super old school, but a very exciting adventure/experiement for the boys!  As the tye dye set, we three went to go see Ice Age 3, 3-D.  Which was awesome, probably mostly because it was in Italian and because there were 4 people in the whole theatre. But check this out: on the way to the movie, some how we started talking about American history, the Boston tea party to be exact. The boys were hooked.  We spent the rest of the afternoon post-movie talking about the Boston tea party, Jamestown, even got into the declaration of Independence and Constitution, while these two little boys sat in rapture listening and asking questions. IT WAS AWESOME :D. Thursday night is date night for the parents, so we spent the evening checking on the tye dye, building a fort with cushions, eating pizza [yup, welcome to Italy, pizza 2x a day] and then reading the Indian and the Cupboard.
Friday, after confirming the Italian course, I had both of the boys at home together.  This was a funky day becaue Ruggi had a birthday party at 4:30, so I was prepared for the nerves and excitement to yield badish behavior in the boys....thank goodness I was prepared. A rough morning filled with whining, rough fighting, and yelling was finally couched with Uno, the miracle game.  They like to be a team against me [because I'm so good, and modest too ;)] which seems to be something they want to do pretty much all of the time. 
Patrizia came home early from work to make a chocolate cake, from scratch, and to get ready for the party, and then the boys arrived. So it was only 4 little boys but I felt like it was 23000. Running around, yelling, fake shooting, fake and real wrestling--absolutely insane. And there were only 4.  Apparently last year there were upwards of 8. Unimmaginable. Right after the party pretty much was dinner, which was piggybacked with some friends of Alberto and Patrizia coming over to see pictures of their US vacation, i.e. more Uno for the kids and me. A late and exhausting night/day.
Saturday--first day in Torino where I am off work. Super slow and relaxed day.  Mid-day shopping with Lindsay, just galavanting around town, continuing to get to know each other and buying a few things at h&m [including my outfit for the baptism on the 27th]. It was a gorgeous day, perfect for strolling, and stroll we did. We finished our spree around 4, Lindsay wanted to take a nap and go for a run [mad props to her] and so I decided to take advantage of an empty house [mom, dad, ruggi and fil all were at a birthday party or work until 7] and free tv to watch Slumdog Millionaire.  It was marvelous.  I just chilled on the couch, watched the movie, had exactly what I wanted for snack when I wanted it and it felt for the first time that this was my place.  Not completely but enough to really lounge in shorts and a tshirt on the sofa.
7 o'clock rolled around and Ruggi, Fil and Caterina [a little dancer/gymnast with TONS of energy] arrived, we had dinner, and sat down to watch "Tata Matilda," or it's true name "Nanny McPhee." A half chapter of Indian and the Cupboard and to bed we went.
Sunday, the last day of summer, I had to babysit in the morning, which included bringing the boys to mass with me.  Something that I cannot do again without going to another mass just for me.  They are Catholic, but they don't go to mass, and thus were not well behaved in church.  If I was fluent in the language, or if it was in English, I feel like it would have been less distracting, but as I needed to concentrate really hard to stay focused on what was being said in order to fully grasp it, their distraction was exactly that.  It was, however, a really nice mass, but surprisingly with very little music! It was an experiment of sorts to bring them to mass with me...and now I know that I need at least one mass just for me, for my time, and that bringing them with me will be a babysitting gig for real.
Sunday evening, Alberto, Ruggi, Fil and I went to the Basilica of Superga.  The story is that the Duke of Savoy really wanted to win this battle, and promised to God that if he did win, then he would build Him the most superb church on the hills looking at the Alps.  They won the battle, thus was born this gorgeous church.  This was also teh church that the Torinese soccer team's airplane fatally crashed into 20 years ago, cursing the team with losses ever since. We picked the perfect time to go, the sun was starting to set, and because of the height and direction of the church we got to see the sun set over Torino and the Alps.  Breathtaking.  I'll post the pictures up here soon. We finished the week, my second full week in Torino, with a scrumtious dinner outside on the front porch, buzzing excitement for the school week to come!

One Year in Italy....here we go!

So let me explain what happened. There is an application on all macs called "iWeb" and I have used it in the past to create a blog. My plan was to use it again because it has all sorts of doo-dads, bells and whistles to spice up a blog page, and you create an entire website, not just a blog. I feel like the organization is better because you could have a whole section dedicated to pictures, to the blog, to movies, to music, etc. So I created my blog on iWeb and even started blogging, but when I went to publish it nothing happened. Then I remembered that mid-summer I got an email from Mac saying something about iWeb and something about no longer publishing the sites....but I didn't remember. Stubbornly I tried to publish the page 4 more times before giving in to peer pressure to use Google blogs. So, the blog is here (hooray!) and the plan is to post about once a week, but fear not, it shall be quite an elaborate post. Since I have been here for almost three weeks, I am going to break up those weeks into their own separate posts. I am using my big, HUGE calendar and documenting what I have done each day, down to the hour...ready, set, go!

A Week in Review

My flight left from Dulles Airport on Saturday, August 29th. I pitstopped in London, switched airports from Heathrow to Gatwick, and arrived in Torino around 7 pm on August 30th. When I arrived, the family that I am living with was waiting at the airport with a sign, "WELLCOME CHRISTINE!!" :D I am living with the most wonderful family of four, Patrizia, Alberto, Filipo, and Ruggero. I cannot get over how wonderfully welcoming and kind they are. Oh and the city!! Out my window there is a balcony, and because this building is 100 years old (seriously) the windows are roughly the size of a door and there is no screen. My view of the city out this window is the Alps. It is a truly breathtaking sight, even more so as the sun sets behind them (Turin is kind of on a peninsula, with mountains surrounding the city). Talk about motivation to wake up in the morning.
Pretty much the rest of the day on Sunday was dinner--my first real Italian dinner. In Italy, meals are casually formal. I mean in terms of the courses. Did you know that pasta is a first dish, and meat is a second dish? Me neither. I was trying to be helpful, as I was not all that talkative in my jet lagged and exhausted state, so I picked up the meat platter to take out to the table. Alberto met me in the doorway, wisked away the platter saying, "That's for second plate/dish." So we ate our first dish of pasta, and then we all got brand new, clean plates for the meat course and then brand new little plates for the dessert/fruit course. Now I know to get more plates, but it still seems strange/excessive to me....
Monday night we went into town--we live in a district called “Crocetta” or “Little Cross,” as it is between two large and old churches I think--and we ate at Patrizia’s favorite pizzeria, “I Fratelli la Conna.” It was designed by a famous Turin actor, but I don’t remember his name. Anyway, it is characterized by caricatures of famous people throughout the interior, bright (mostly red) walls, excellent pizza (approved by the Napolitano Pizza Association, I kid you not), and seafood (‘Le Conne’ means mussels). This restaurant is in Piazza del Castello where the national library of Turin is! As well as the first Parliament house of Italy because Turin was the first capital! It was very cool :) After dinner we walked around a little bit, stopping of course at a gelato place. We did a big circle around Piazza Castello, hitting Via Roma (all of the insanely expensive designer stores), Palazzo Reale and Teatro Regio (This season they are doing La Traviata, The Nutcracker, Wagner's Tannhäuser, The Barber of Seville, and Le Bohème, just to name a few), Piazza San Carlo, and probably some other ones. I was exhausted still, and not to mention that they don't start to think about dinner until 8-8:30.
Tuesday, Sept 1 started with taking Fillipo to his grandmother's house and then going to the post office to get the forms to legally stay here--my first brush with Italian beauracracy...At lunch, an American aupair who was good friends with my predecessor joined us. It was a surprisingly amazing feeling to hear and speak coloquial American English with her! After lunch, the boys just played in the house and at the huge, quad-like-except-mostly-pavement park across the street until 6 when they went to a birthday party. For dinner, Lindsay and I went to what is called Apperitivi--essentially you pay for a drink, and in return you get not only the drink but an all-access pass to the appetizer buffet that is out. It was great! 6 euro for dinner, holla. What is an Italian dinner without gelato for dessert? Incomplete. Lindsay and I walked to the city center, wonderful gelato in hand, while she filled me in on her almost year long experience. Lindsay got to Torino last October, and is leaving October 12, so she imparted some wisdom about Torino on me.
Wednesday was pretty uneventful, just trying to work out some sort of routine. The boys played together the whole day at home or at the park--Patrizia and Alberto were concerned that it would be too much for me on day 3, but they were well behaved. Ruggi's birthday was the week before and he had received play models of Egyptian boats, Pirate boats, and the corresponding sailors, so clearly there was a war between the Pirates and the Egyptians. The day ended with a lovely dinner outside on the back porch....at 8:30pm....hopefully I'll get used to that...
Thursday was a little different--Patrizia came home for lunch so that I could go to the University to register for classes. Well....even though I had a map, had gotten googlemap step by step instructions, and had even 'walked' through the route on googlemaps, I got lost. Way lost. I took the bus almost to the next town! And I definitely did not make it to the University before they closed at 4pm. I spent about 4.5 hours on public transportation/walking back to the house. blegh. But when I met Patrizia at the park aroudn 6:30, her sister had brought gelato! A lovely little treat after an exhausting afternoon. Thursday nights Patrizia and Alberto go out, so Fil, Ruggi, their friend Francesco and I ate dinner together and played until 9:30 when Francesco went home and Fil and Ruggi went to bed. Guess what story they are reading/I read to them?!?! The Indian and the Cupboard!! :D I was psyched when they asked me to read it! Well done Lauren getting them hooked on a great story!
Friday orning Filipo and I went to his dentist appointment and then together we found the University! Hooray!! Unfortunately so did about 50 other people, so we had to wait 30 minutes to get anything done. I found out that I couldn't do anything without a special code that I get after turning in all of my paperwork. But the lady who helped us was great, and I filled out all of the paperwork that I could so that basically I just need to go there, give them the code, and register for my class. Lunch was at home with everyone--all 5 of us--and then to the sea! They have recently acquired (they rent it but longterm) a bungalow in a town called Lerici. It is the first or second town south of Cinque Terre. Breathtaking. Their cottage is on top of a hill, so when the sun sets it is over the port with 400,000 small sail boats. The town is only about 3 hours away from Torino luckily enough. When we got there, around 5:30, the boys and I played soccer on the front yard for almost 2 hours, boys vs. girl. Dinner was in a restaurant called: Cicciulo. This restaurant is built into the side of an ancient castle and the only way to get to it is through the passageway under the castle/hill; a not so secret passageway.
Saturday morning breakfast was on me--Pancakes and bacon! yummmmm! After we all were stuffed Patrizia, the boys and I went to the Lido, the only real beach because the rest is mostly rocks, while Alberto went to a neuroscience conference one town over. Beautiful day! The waves were perfect, no clouds in the sky, we had 2 lounge chairs--ahhhhh paradise. At 3:30 we took a ferry to Portovenere--the southern most town of Cinque Terre, and the home of Lord Byron's castle. Across the cove from Portovenere (literally 5 miles) there is a little military island that is mostly beach with only 15 residents. We headed over there to catch some rays, play in the water, and hike up the mini mountain that overlooks the ocean. Patrizia and the boys stayed on the beach while Alberto and I hiked the trail. It was nice, it gave the two of us time to talk some politics, :). The last taxi boat back to Portovenere left at 7. Once back in Portovenere we visited Byron's Castle. It is at the top of the hill/mountain overlooking the ocean and right on a curve, so on one side is the town and the other is the sublime; huge waves crashing into the ragged rock of the mountain. Right next to his castle is an ancient church, that is still used! There was a wedding there that day! We saw the bride and groom as they walked down the oversized stairs to the main road of Portovenere. For dinner we ate in a Slow Food restaurant--interestingly enough the slow food movement began in Torino. It was delicious, very quick and cheap, a good trio. The last ferry back to Lerici left at 8 pm--right before dinner--so we took a bus back to Lerici, roughly and hour journey.
Sunday morning I woke early to go to the tiny, beautiful church in town only to find that the mass advertized was at the bigger church somewhere in Lerici. I was pretty disappointed, but I was able to spend some alone time in reflection, prayer and reading of the Bible in the church. I treked back to the house for breakfast and then on we went back to the Lido! This time it was just Fil, Ruggi and me, because Alberto and Patrizia had some house-work they wanted to do. When we came back for lunch, it was out of a story book. I'm not kidding, a typical Italian lunch. It was outside on the patio, under the trees so the lighting was speckled like that Renior of the Moulin. The table was covered with a white table cloth, the ceramic plates were a brighter white than that of the table, and there were small glasses of white wine. At the table was Patrizia, Alberto, Patrizia's sister Cinzia, her husband and mother-in-law, the landlord for the bungalow [an former sea captian of about 81, named Nilo], Cinzia's brand new baby Federico in a basket crib behind the table, Fil, Ruggi, and myself. We had an elaborate meal (as all meals seem to be) of a specific pasta baked with parmigiano and zucchine fresh from the veggie garden in the yard for the first plate and salad with 5 different lettuces, peppers, and tomatoes. For dessert there was a special cake, fresh grapes, apples, and peaches. Then coffee, where everyone gets both an espresso mug/cup, a saucer, a coffee spoon brought out on a tray with the cream and sugar in their own containers as if it were high tea. It was easily a 2.5 hour affair with Nilo telling stories from the old sailing days, story swapping about babies, and all embellished with Italian gestures which became more elaborate as the white wine flowed. :D
After lunch, it was back to Torino for Ruggi, Patrizia, Alberto and me--Fil would stay until Wednesday, coming back on the train with Cinzia's mother-in-law. As we drove through Liguria (the region where Lerici is) we learned that there were fires in Genova, preventing cars from driving on the [private] highways near there so we had to go back by another way. We drove up the coastline and then into the hills on National [less maintained, less nice, less direct] highways adding about an hour to our return time. No worries though, we were accompanied by John Legend and his "Once Again." :) We got back pretty late, deciding on a quick pasta [gnocchi and cheese--to die for] and omelet for dinner, and hopefully and early night. It was not to be. Uncle Inriche and cousin Marta dropped by to give Ruggi his birthday gift from them, and Lauren (my predecessor) called in the middle of dinner from Oakland, CA! So in between courses one and two we talked with Lauren, 9 hour time difference. Then Patrizia and I spent almost an hour filling out the paperwork for Italian beauracracy, to be filled the next day. Not an early night at all, but a wonderful first week!